


John

by doctornerdington



Series: 221B Character Studies [5]
Category: ELIOT T. S. - Works, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Character Study, Season/Series 02-03 Hiatus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-18
Updated: 2013-11-18
Packaged: 2018-01-02 00:20:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1050324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctornerdington/pseuds/doctornerdington
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A 221B character study of John Watson, set between 2.3 and 3.1.</p>
            </blockquote>





	John

This is death’s other kingdom. These are the people left behind; in mortal shock, in heartbreak, in disbelief, in horror. They are his people now, and this his indifferent tribe. 

Once before, John hovered on the edge; he walked London with a stilted tread, drawing ever closer to the border, planning simply to invisibly cross over one day. It was Sherlock, then, who pulled him back: solid, warm, joyous, needy, alive. The same Sherlock now twined around his neck and his heart, weaving ice through his viscera, pinning him immobile in the shadowlands. Oh yes, John is a subject in this dark kingdom. Irrevocably and silently, his actions rote. 

Seven stages of grief are not going to cut it, Ella be damned. A year of magical thinking does not suffice, not when his entire body has emptied itself, shape without form, shade without colour. Not when he clings to that emptiness because it staves off the howling fury that still, distantly, prowls. But fury is not for him anymore, not since the first violence had passed: knuckles healed, flat repaired. John has become paralyzed force – he is gesture without motion. He is a hollow man, seeing only shadows between idea and reality, between motion and act. 

This cannot be the way the world ends for him. John fears what he is becoming.

**Author's Note:**

> Many words taken from Eliot's "The Hollow Men."


End file.
